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23 year old American Rachel killed by Israeli Army Bulldozer

Let's hope this life wasn't wasted, because media ignors it in favour to Iraq war

Quote:

Israeli Army Bulldozer Kills American in Gazaby Greg Myre
ERUSALEM, March 16 — An Israeli Army bulldozer today crushed to death an American woman who had kneeled in the dirt to prevent the armored vehicle from destroying a Palestinian home in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The Israeli military said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen the woman, and called it a "very regrettable accident."

The woman, Rachel Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Wash., was among eight Americans and Britons who had been acting as "human shields" to try to stop the almost daily house demolitions by Israeli forces in Rafah, on Gaza's border with Egypt.

When the bulldozer approached a house today, Ms. Corrie, who was wearing a bright orange jacket, dropped to her knees, a practice that members of the group to which she belonged, the International Solidarity Movement, have used repeatedly, her colleagues at the scene said.

As the bulldozer reached her without slowing up, she began to rise, but was trapped beneath a pile of dirt generated by its blade and the blade itself, said one member of the group, Tom Dale, who said he was standing about 30 feet away.

"We were shouting and waving our arms at the driver," said Mr. Dale, who is British. "We even had a megaphone. But the bulldozer kept going until she was under the body or the tracks of the bulldozer."

The bulldozer stopped for a few seconds and pulled back, Mr. Dale added. Her colleagues rushed to Ms. Corrie, who was bleeding from the head and face and badly wounded, but still breathing. An ambulance took her to Najar Hospital, where she died. She had a fractured skull and other injuries, said Dr. Ali Moussa, a hospital administrator.

At the time Ms. Corrie was run over, she was in an open area in front of the house, Mr. Dale said. The bulldozer came from some distance away, and "there was nothing to obscure the driver's view," he said.

But Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman, said that the armored bulldozer had limited visibility, and that the driver had not been aware that Ms. Corrie was in his path.

In a statement, the Israeli military said soldiers "were dealing with a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger — the Palestinians, themselves and our forces — by intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone."

About an hour before Ms. Corrie was killed, troops fired tear gas and shot into the air during a confrontation with the protesters at a nearby house, both Mr. Dale and the Israeli military said.

The International Solidarity Movement is made up mostly of Americans and Europeans in their 20's and 30's who are sympathetic to the Palestinians and oppose the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They have repeatedly placed themselves in front of Israeli forces operating in those areas.

Last May, several members dashed past Israeli troops into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Palestinian gunmen had been holed up for more than a month. The protesters remained for several days, until the standoff ended with the surrender of the gunmen.

Ms. Corrie, who was to graduate from Evergreen State College in Olympia this year, had been in Rafah for two months, her colleagues said.

In Olympia, Colin Reese, a student at Evergreen State and a close friend of Ms. Corrie, said she had focused much of her studies on community organizing. Describing her work in Gaza, he said, "She was particularly touched by the Palestinian situation and wanted to use her privilege as an American citizen to help defend against the Israeli occupation."

One of Ms. Corrie's teachers at Evergreen was Larry Mosqueda, a professor of political economy and social change, who said her work in Gaza was a reflection of lessons taught at Evergreen that encourage students to put their education to practical use while still in college. "She has a strong sense of social justice," he said. "Basically, she wanted to do something about it instead of just talk about it."

In an e-mail message this month, Ms. Corrie described a Feb. 14 standoff in which members of her group "stood in the path of the bulldozers and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house." She added that "the bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house" with the protesters still inside.

The Israeli Army and Palestinian militants wage frequent gun battles in Rafah. An unarmed Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli fire today in the town, said Palestinian security sources and hospital officials. The Israeli Army said it was checking the report.

[Early Monday, at least four Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed in an Israeli raid of the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Reuters reported, quoting hospital officials.]

The military has flattened dozens of homes in Rafah, some because militants were using them for cover.

The Israeli authorities have said the International Solidarity Movement's protesters prevent soldiers from acting against militants, and they have deported some members. Demonstrators have been hurt, but Ms. Corrie was the first one killed.

The Israeli troops "have shot over our heads, and shot near our feet — they have fired tear gas at us," said Michael Shaik, media coordinator for the group. "But we thought we had an understanding. We didn't think they would kill us."

I do believe it is an unlawful use of force and her demise may have even been desired.

Here is another article:

JERUSALEM
Israeli Bulldozer Crushes U.S. Activist to Death
By Laura King
Times Staff Writer

March 17, 2003

While fellow protesters screamed in horror, a 23-year-old college student and activist from Washington state was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer Sunday as her group was trying to block the demolition of Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, eyewitnesses said.

The Israeli army called her death a "regrettable accident" but blamed the protesters for deliberately placing themselves in harm's way -- part of what it said has been a pattern of reckless behavior by foreign activists in the West Bank and Gaza.

The young woman, Rachel Corrie, was one of a group of mainly Americans and Europeans who have staged weeks of demonstrations in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, where the army has destroyed dozens of structures in a volatile border zone that is rocked by near-constant fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.

Standing in the path of an approaching military bulldozer, Corrie lost her footing as it drew close and was first hit by a massive load of sand and debris being pushed ahead by its blade, then struck by the blade itself, witnesses said.

"I saw her in front of the bulldozer, and suddenly she disappeared from view," said Palestinian physician Samir Masri, whose family had been playing host to a group of protesters that included Corrie. "I ran out to her and saw her bleeding face, her crushed skull.... I tried to treat her, but everything was broken."

Corrie was dead of massive head and chest injuries by the time she arrived at nearby Najar hospital in Rafah, said the hospital's director, Dr. Ali Moussa.

Separately, at least six Palestinians, including a 2-year-old girl, died early today when Israeli tanks and armor pushed into the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Palestinian doctors said. Two other Palestinians were killed elsewhere in Gaza on Sunday.

Corrie grew up in Olympia, Wash., where she attended school and was frequently seen at peace demonstrations. A college spokesperson said she would have been a senior at Evergreen State College, a small public liberal arts school known for activism in social causes, and had been expected to resume her studies when she returned from the Middle East.

She had told friends and professors she was traveling to the region to be a "peace witness."

"She was very strong willed in her quiet way, but she wasn't at all self-aggrandizing," said Lin Nelson, a professor at Evergreen. "It meant a lot to her to be part of an effort to observe and witness and influence the world."

Nelson said that Corrie, who took an interest in domestic causes such as the plight of local timber towns that had fallen on harsh economic times, "seemed to have done her homework" about the situation in the Palestinian territories.

"When I heard what happened, I was appalled and sickened," she said. "I have such a sense of loss."

The Israeli army expressed regret at Corrie's death, but a military spokesman also denounced the protesters, saying that over a period of many months, some activists have consistently taken actions that endangered themselves along with Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians.

The group to which Corrie belonged, the International Solidarity Movement, has held protests at the scene of many trouble spots over the course of nearly 2 1/2 years of fighting, with its members frequently placing themselves between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers or Jewish settlers. Sunday marked the first time a member of the group has been killed.

"We are very, very sorry it ended this way," said Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman. "But we really have to say this is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible form of protest -- it's unsafe for everyone. We're dealing with a combat zone. This is a place where troops are in heavy armor. There's shooting there all the time. This is not a place where a protest can be held in any kind of a safe way."

Dallal said bulletproof windows are relatively small and visibility is limited in the type of armored bulldozer that killed Corrie: a super-size model known as the D-9 often used to demolish homes. He said that the Israeli troops, who were clearing ground in search of explosives, had tried to move away from the protesters but that the group followed them.

Witnesses from Corrie's group, who included four Americans and four Europeans, said she was wearing a fluorescent-orange jacket and would have been clearly visible to the bulldozer's driver.

"She was standing directly in his path -- she just didn't back down," said Nick Burrie, of Dundee, Scotland. "Then she lost her footing, and he just kept right on driving forward."

Israeli troops temporarily halted the bulldozing after Corrie was hit but continued other operations in the area later Sunday, a military source said.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy, whose staff in Israel has been sharply reduced in advance of expected war in Iraq, could not be reached for comment.

In recent weeks, Corrie had posted accounts of the group's activities on the Internet. The postings painted a picture of an idealistic young woman who believed she was helping to ease the Palestinians' plight.

"Rafah continues to witness the destruction of homes ... on a daily basis," she wrote late last month. Acknowledging that the protests were dangerous, she cited a "variable factor" in trying to block home demolitions -- "whether the driver of a particular tank cares about injuring [protesters] in the process of destroying the welfare of Palestinians living here."

Evergreen professor and family friend Peter Bohmer said that Corrie's parents were instrumental in creating an alternative education program in the Olympia public schools and that the desirability of becoming involved in the world was stressed to her from an early age.

"She grew up with the idea that it wasn't enough to talk about something -- you also had to do something," Bohmer said.

Built within a forest alongside Puget Sound, Evergreen was a product of 1960s activism and dispenses with such traditional educational concepts as grades, majors and academic departments. The 4,000-student college's reputation has prompted some conservative legislators to lobby for its closing. Former student Lynda Barry, the cartoonist and author, has described the school as a "hippie college," while the fame of fellow alum Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons," has also contributed to the school's freewheeling reputation.

Corrie, a student of international politics and art, was considered rare among the student body in that she had grown up in Olympia and bridged the divide between lifelong residents and a transient student population.

In a Feb. 14 e-mail to friends, Corrie described one episode in the Palestinian territories in which other activists -- or "internationalists," as she called them -- tried to halt a bulldozing.

"The internationalists stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house," she wrote. "The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the Internationals inside. The driver then dropped a sound grenade out of the cab of the bulldozer, and continued to demolish the house, at which point the activists were able to escape, amid gunfire from the tank."

Israel has for many months had a tense relationship with the International Solidarity Movement, whose mainly Western activists have mounted a campaign of protest against a variety of Israeli military activities.

Three of its members were arrested late last year while trying to obstruct the building of a security fence between Israel and the West Bank. Israel says the fence is needed to keep out suicide bombers and other attackers; the protesters charged that Israel was appropriating Palestinian land for it.

Other activists from the group slipped past Israeli soldiers last spring to enter the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem during a monthlong standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen holed up inside.

Israel tried for a time to deny entry to the activists but drew angry protests when it turned away travelers arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport who turned out to be employed by humanitarian organizations, or who were ordinary tourists or pilgrims.

Rafah, on the Egyptian frontier at the southern tip of Gaza, has been the scene of some of the most intense fighting of recent months between Israelis and Palestinians. The border zone is rife with tunnels that Israel says are used to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into Gaza. It says demolition of structures is aimed at destroying the tunnels, securing the border and clearing areas where Palestinian militants take cover.

Palestinians and human rights groups say Rafah is a prime example of excessive Israeli force being used in a crowded civilian area whose impoverished residents have no way to escape the fighting. At least six children have been among the civilians killed in the area in recent months.

Masri, the Palestinian doctor with whose family Corrie had lived, remembered a spirited, athletic young woman who often observed local mores by wearing a head scarf over her blond hair.

"She was very brave and beautiful, a special friend to me and my family," Masri said. "She only wanted to help us, and she paid with her life."

to be honest, I have very little respect for the legal definition of much surrounding the word 'murder'

To my morals, if you as an individual deliberately take a course of action that you know will result in another's death, you are a MURDERER. If you as an organization or a government empower someone to do this, you are also a murderer.

Thus, both the bulldozer driver and the Israeli government are murderers.

From another Message Board.
"I live in Olympia, home of The Evergreen College, where 23-year-old Rachel Corrie was enrolled. Naturally, the local paper was full of information about yesterday's event. For those of you who may not know, Evergreen is perhaps the most liberal college in America, or if not, just a baby step behind Reed College. It is what Cal Berkeley was during the Haight-Ashbury period. They don't give grades there, it's all pass/fail. It has been a continual source of local embarrassment, since it was built sometime in the 1970's. As an example of the school's agenda, each May 1 (remember May Day, which other communists around the globe used to celebrate) a couple hundred of them march from the campus to various intersections in west Olympia, block traffic, and vandalize small businesses. Last year they blocked the major intersection leading to the one of the local hospitals. I said at the time, if my wife or one of my children needed emergency medical attention, I would gladly see how far into that crowd I could get with my 4 x 4... Many other businessmen in this town felt the same way.
Pictures in the local paper (taken just before she got flattened), showed her in a bright orange vest, screaming at the cat operator with a bullhorn. If you've never operated a piece of equipment like that, you need to know they don't have power steering and/or disc brakes. And rational people don't play "chicken" in front of one.
One of her professors was quoted in the local paper as saying "she was a very bright, clear-thinking activist at Evergreen..." Not sure about the clear-thinking part, but I'm sure the activist part is accurate.
In an earlier thread (now scrolled off the board), someone commented that this girl probably didn't know what she was doing. Based upon my knowledge of the local situation, I'd say she knew exactly what she was doing. I feel sorry for her parents and family, but sometimes in this life you reap what you sow."

__________________
"When People Feel Uncertain, they'd rather have somebody who is Strong and Wrong than somebody who is Weak and Right."

From another Message Board.
"I live in Olympia, home of The Evergreen College, where 23-year-old Rachel Corrie was enrolled. Naturally, the local paper was full of information about yesterday's event. For those of you who may not know, Evergreen is perhaps the most liberal college in America, or if not, just a baby step behind Reed College. It is what Cal Berkeley was during the Haight-Ashbury period. They don't give grades there, it's all pass/fail. It has been a continual source of local embarrassment, since it was built sometime in the 1970's. As an example of the school's agenda, each May 1 (remember May Day, which other communists around the globe used to celebrate) a couple hundred of them march from the campus to various intersections in west Olympia, block traffic, and vandalize small businesses. Last year they blocked the major intersection leading to the one of the local hospitals. I said at the time, if my wife or one of my children needed emergency medical attention, I would gladly see how far into that crowd I could get with my 4 x 4... Many other businessmen in this town felt the same way.
Pictures in the local paper (taken just before she got flattened), showed her in a bright orange vest, screaming at the cat operator with a bullhorn. If you've never operated a piece of equipment like that, you need to know they don't have power steering and/or disc brakes. And rational people don't play "chicken" in front of one.
One of her professors was quoted in the local paper as saying "she was a very bright, clear-thinking activist at Evergreen..." Not sure about the clear-thinking part, but I'm sure the activist part is accurate.
In an earlier thread (now scrolled off the board), someone commented that this girl probably didn't know what she was doing. Based upon my knowledge of the local situation, I'd say she knew exactly what she was doing. I feel sorry for her parents and family, but sometimes in this life you reap what you sow."